GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.— The Colorado Mesa University softball team will begin the 2018 season this weekend playing host to the CMU Invitational at the V. Sue Cleveland High School Softball Complex in Rio Rancho, N.M. The Mavericks will play five games against fellow NCAA Division II South Central Region foes over three days starting Friday morning at 10 .m. against former Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Western New Mexico.
A total of 20 games will be played be eight teams on three fields. All eight teams, who will play five games each, hail from the South Central Region with four representing the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (Adams State, Colorado Mesa, MSU Denver, New Mexico Highlands), three from the Lone Star Conference (Angelo State, Texas A&M-Commerce, Western New Mexico) and one from the Heartland Conference (St. Mary's).
All Three Champs
This weekend's tournament field is quite strong and features all three 2017 season conference champions for the NCAA Division II South Central Region. All three begin 2018 nationally-ranked as well. CMU went 48-8 overall and 35-4 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play to win a second straight conference title a year ago. They then went on to win the RMAC Tournament and to advance to the final of a South Central Regional Tournament, where they fell to Angelo State.
Angelo State won the Lone Star Conference's Regular Season title and then went on to claim a regional title over the Mavericks before winning the Super Regional over Texas Woman's. The Rambelles, who were 60-7 (23-3 LSC), then advanced to the NCAA Division II National Tournament and ended up second after falling in a best-of-3 national championship series to Minnesota State.
St. Mary's won the Heartland Conference's regular season title with a 16-5 conference mark and finished 44-16. The Rattlers lost to Texas Woman's in the championship game of their regional.
Angelo State is ranked second in the NFCA Division II Preseason Coaches' Poll while CMU is ranked eighth. St. Mary's is ranked 22
nd.
Mavs dominate RMAC Poll/Preseason Awards
The Mavericks enter the 2018 campaign highly touted as they received all 11 possible first place votes to top the
RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, which was announced Monday. The Mavericks also swept the two major awards with senior utility player
Brooke Hodgson and junior
McKenzie Surface named as the RMAC's Preseason Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively. Both of those players shared the 2017 post-season edition of those awards.
Hodgson, selected as one of the three outfielders, and Surface were also selected to the Preseason All-RMAC team along with sophomore first baseman
AnnMarie Torres, junior second baseman
Alexandria Dufour, junior third baseman
Kaila Jacobi, and senior utility player
Abby Toller. The Mavericks had six total Preseason All-RMAC selections on the 13-player team. MSU Denver, which will also be at this weekend's tournament, were the next closest with three. The Roadrunners were picked third in the poll itself.
Hodgson Homecoming
Brooke Hodgson will be making a homecoming this weekend as she returns to play on her high school field. A 2015 graduate of V. Sue Cleveland High School, Hodgson has already earned three First Team All-RMAC accolades and has been a first team all-American in each of the past two after earning second team all-region accolades as a freshman in 2016. She is hitting .393 throughout her collegiate career thus far while hitting 39 home runs and driving in 188 runs.
RMAC dominance under Garcia
Ben Garcia beings his fourth season as the Mavericks' Head Coach on Friday. Named as the RMAC Coach of the Year in 2016, he has guided the Mavericks to 121 wins and a .733 winning percentage in his 165 total games (121-44) at CMU. The Mavericks, who have advanced to the last two South Central Regional Championship games, are also a combined 98-18 (.845) in RMAC games and 108-22 (.831) against RMAC foes, counting non-conference and RMAC Tournament games, under Garcia.
CMU has won the last two RMAC Championships under Garcia with 35-4 (2017) and 35-3 (2016) conference records. The Mavericks also finished second in the 2015 standings in Garcia's first season claiming 28 wins, equal to MSU Denver's total from that year.
The back-to-back 35 RMAC win seasons are two of the third best in RMAC history behind only MSU Denver's 2010 37-RMAC win campaign.
The Mavericks have won 19 more RMAC games than any other school in the past two years (MSU Denver, 51) and have also won 19 more than the Roadrunners (79) over the past three years.
Prior to coming to CMU in July of 2014, Garcia served as the head coach at Otero Junior College for three seasons (2012-14). He posted a 143-42 mark at Otero including a pair of Region IX Championships in 2013 and 2014.
Garcia was also highly successful at the high school rankings winning over 400 games in 21 years as head coach at Pueblo East. He led the Eagles to 19 state tournament appearances, including the state title in 2012 and four runner-up appearances.
Highest ranking
The Mavericks' No. 8 ranking in the
NFCA Division II Preseason Top 25 Coaches' Poll is their highest under Head Coach
Ben Garcia. The Mavericks ended the 2017 season ranked 11
th and were ranked 19
th in last year's preseason ranking. They were included in all but two of last year's 15 Top 25 polls.
Just one from 50
Junior pitcher
McKenzie Surface has tallied 49 wins in the first two years of her collegiate career and is primed to pick up her 50
th this weekend. She has led the RMAC in wins in each of the past two years recording a 27-8 record and a conference-leading 1.63 ERA last year. She also recorded a RMAC-high 195 strikeouts and held opposing hitters to a combined .221 hitting percentage, the best mark in the conference last year, earning RMAC Co-Pitcher of the Year and honorable mention all-America honors. Surface was also a First Team All-RMAC pick as a freshman in 2016 after registering a 22-9 record. She has also thrown 16 shutouts in her career.
Scouting the Opponents
Western New Mexico (Friday, February 2nd – 10 a.m.)
The Mustangs went 2-46 and 1-29 in their first year in the Lone Star Conference last season and have turned the reigns of the program to first-year head coach Elsa Cocker, who was an assistant with the team a year ago. Cocker will have the services of Third Team All-LSC shortstop Mariangela Garcia. Now a senior, Garcia led the 2017 edition of the Mustangs with her .336 batting average and started all 48 games. Lyana Waddell led Mustangs in pitching appearances (36), games started (21) and complete game (6) last year and is expected to help lead the pitching staff this year.
They were picked 11
th in this year's LSC Preseason Poll.
The Mavericks are 7-2 against Western New Mexico under
Ben Garcia sweeping a home series against the Mustangs in 2016, WNMU's last year in the RMAC. CMU went 3-2 against the Mustangs in 2015 winning 3 of 4 in Silver City, N.M. before dropping a neutral-site decision to them in the first round of the RMAC Tournament, played in Denver that year.
Angelo State (Friday, February 2nd – 12:30 p.m.)
As mentioned above, the Rambelles advanced to last year's NCAA Division II National Championship series and finished the 2017 campaign with an impressive 60-7 mark. They return five of their six First Team All-LSC picks from a year ago, including All-American and LSC Pitcher of the Year Brandy Marlett, who posted a 29-5 record and 1.36 ERA a year ago. 2017 LSC Freshman of the Year Courtney Barnhill also returns for reigning LSC Coach of the Year Travis Scott. Barnhill led the Rambelles with her .378 batting average, 53 runs scored and 56 RBI in 2017. She also hit 15 home runs and slugged at a team-high .668 clip.
The Rambelles have been picked first in the LSC Preseason Poll and Marlett has been named as the league's preseason pitcher of the year.
The Mavericks and Rambelles have only met twice with
Ben Garcia at the helm. Both meetings came in last year's NCAA South Central Regional Tournament in San Angelo, Texas. The hosts won both games by tight 3-2 and 4-0 margins.
MSU Denver (Saturday, February 3rd – 10 a.m.)
The Roadrunners enter 2018 picked third in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll after finishing in the same spot a year ago. They went 34-21 overall and 26-12 in RMAC play. Fifth year head coach Annie Van Wetzinga will have the services of three Preseason All-RMAC selections in senior outfielder Annika Anderson, senior catcher Sarena Espinoza and sophomore pitcher Darby McGhee. Anderson led the Roadrunners with her .414 batting average and earned both First Team All-RMAC and all-region plaudits. McGhee went 9-6 with a 4.60 ERA from inside the circle and made a team-high 32 pitching appearances as a freshman in 2017.
The Mavericks and Roadrunners did not meet in RMAC play nor the RMAC Tournament last year and will not have a conference series in 2018 either. However, the Mavericks did take two non-conference, intra-region wins in Denver last year on the opening weekend of the season after going 0-3 against them in both 2016 and 2016. Four of those previous six games have come at neutral-site "RMAC pod" weekends with the other two coming in the 2015 and 2016 RMAC Tournament.
Texas A&M Commerce (Saturday, February 3rd – 12:30 p.m.)
The Lions' softball program, beginning their fourth season of existence, went 34-20 overall and 16-14 in LSC to finish sixth in last year's LSC standings. Coach Richie Bruister returns seven starters and all five of his all-conference picks from a year ago, including LSC Preseason Player of the Year Mariah Jameyson, who led the nation with 20 home runs while finishing second in the country with 70 RBI.
The Lions have become the fastest team in NCAA history to reach 100 wins in their program, doing so in the final game of last year's regular season.
They have been tabbed sixth in this year's LSC Preseason Poll.
Friday's game will be the first ever meeting between the teams.
St. Mary's (Sunday, February 4th – 10 a.m.)
The Rattlers enter their 21
st season under head coach Donna Fields having been picked second in the Heartland Conference, according to that league's preseason poll. They also have four Preseason All-Heartland selections and are ranked 22
nd in the NFCA Poll.
In 2017, they went 44-16 overall and 16-5 in Heartland Conference play to win their eighth straight conference title before falling in the tournament championship game to Lubbock Christian. Led by now junior outfielder and third baseman Raynelle Nash, who was the Heartland's Player of the Year in 2017, the Rattlers advanced to a fifth straight regional tournament where they went 2-2 with their season being ended by Texas Woman's in their 4-team regional in Canyon, Texas.
Nash hit .403 a year ago.
The Rattlers and Mavericks have not met since 2007. St. Mary's leads the overall series 14-5.
Up next
After hosting this week's tournament in New Mexico, the Mavericks will head out on the road again to play in the Dixie State Easton Classic from Thursday, Feb. 8-Saturday, Feb. 10. CMU will play five more games at that tournament facing off with Western New Mexico for the second time of the campaign in their third game of the weekend on Friday, Feb. 9. They also play Northwest Nazarene (Idaho) earlier that day after opening the tournament against Hawai'i-Hilo. The Mavs wrap up the tournament with Saturday, Feb. 10 games against Concordia-Irvine and Cal Baptist, both of whom are receiving votes in NFCA Preseason Top 25 poll.
